Gene Frenette: Dreadful defense gives Jaguars no chance to beat Lions or retain playoff hope

The Jaguars took a dreadful trip back in time Sunday at Ford Field. Back to the worst days of the Gus Bradley era and the final chapter of the Doug Marrone regime.

Few imagined them flying 1,010 miles up to the Motor City, then crash-landing on an NFL stage in such astonishing fashion.

With the door slightly open to build some momentum for a potential December playoff push, the Jaguars instead revealed themselves to be postseason frauds.

Anybody with NFL playoff aspirations can’t do what Doug Pederson’s team did Sunday: have its worst game of the season and come completely undone from the outset in a 40-14 loss to the Detroit Lions.

More Jaguars coverage:

• Game recap: A look back at Jaguars vs. Lions

• Takeaways: Jaguars shut down in Motown, fall 40-14 to Detroit Lions

• Brief injury scare: Trevor Lawrence hurt but returns vs. Detroit Lions

That feel-good story line the Jaguars created from last week’s spirited comeback win over the Baltimore Ravens, it all evaporated with an abominable road showing and NFL-record 20th consecutive loss to an NFC opponent.

Not that any member of the Jaguars deserves any form of exoneration, but a large share of the blame for this dumpster-fire performance has to fall on Mike Caldwell’s defense.

You can’t talk about being a “playoff-caliber team,” as tight end Dan Arnold insisted last week, then go out and get trucked for 40 points, 437 yards and allow an opponent to go 4-for-4 in the red zone.

Sure, the Lions have a fairly potent offense that was averaging a respectable 25 points per game. But the Jaguars made them look like the 2007 New England Patriots, 2013 Denver Broncos and 2018 Kansas City Chiefs rolled into one.

Lions quarterback Jared Goff too often had his pick of open receivers, either because the Jaguars’ pass rush outside of Chad Muma was non-existent or the coverage from Darious Williams, Tyson Campbell and Tevaughn Campbell wasn’t tight enough to get Detroit off the field.

Defense keeps regressing

How is Trevor Lawrence, who was thankfully not seriously injured on a James Houston sack to end the first half, supposed to keep up when the Jaguars’ defense allows points on the first eight Lions’ possessions, followed by a victory formation kneel-down?

You know it’s bad when punter Jack Fox only comes on the field for eight snaps, all of them to either hold for Michael Badgley on four extra points or four field goals.

Outside linebacker and captain Josh Allen was scrambling to find the right words in his postgame media session to explain the defense’s pitiful showing.

The same four-letter word that starts with “s” kept spilling out in his answers, which was appropriate because that aptly describes how the Jaguars played from start to finish.

Allen didn’t sugarcoat what he thought about the defense doing nothing to slow down Goff or receivers Amon-Ra St. Brown (11 catches, 114 yards, 2 TDs) and ex-Jaguar DJ Chark (5 catches, 98 yards) or what can be done to recover from this atrocity.

“S---, s---, we just gotta go, man,” said Allen. “It’s disappointing, you know, especially on the defensive side, man. For them not to punt the ball one time. That’s embarrassing. I’ve never ever done that before in my career. Uh, and hopefully that’s gonna be the last. … It’s just unacceptable.”

Even Lawrence, who usually confines any criticism to just himself and the offense, couldn’t ignore what a colossal all-around fiasco that was for the entire team.

“Yeah, it’s embarrassing honestly what we put out there in such a big game for us,” said Lawrence. “I mean, that’s the word to describe it. It’s embarrassing. Everybody in that locker room feels that way, too, just to — I mean, this is a playoff game for us and we go out there and laid down.”

No argument there. With a chance to pull within two games of the AFC South-leading Tennessee Titans, who lost 35-10 to the Philadelphia Eagles, the Jaguars (4-8) allowed the most points since their 50-10 road debacle on January 2 to the New England Patriots.

Etienne’s fumble set bad tone

There’s plenty of collective egg to be wiped from the faces of the offense as well. It managed just 266 total yards against a Lions’ defense that was dead last in multiple categories and allowing nearly 150 yards more per game.

Once Travis Etienne fumbled on the second play of the game, which led to Detroit’s first touchdown, the Jaguars couldn’t find any mojo and seemed like they were in some kind of football twilight zone after that.

Receivers, especially Zay Jones, kept dropping passes. The chains never moved on five possessions.

Defensively, Goff had to feel like he was operating against the Lions’ second-team defense in practice. Except for a 41-yard pass to Chark and an uncovered De’Andre Swift taking a swing pass for 24 yards, Detroit didn’t have that many explosive plays.

Goff just kept throwing short-range passes to wide open targets. The Lions collected a whopping 31 first downs, five more than the next-best NFL total this week heading into Monday night’s Tampa Bay Buccaneers-New Orleans Saints game.

Pederson, when asked if he will get more involved in the defensive game plan moving forward, replied: “That’s not my expertise. But just, we’ve just got to have conversations and be open and we’ve all got to be honest with what we’re doing and making sure we’ve got the right guys in the right spots.”

Let’s be honest about one thing: the Jaguars’ defense, ranked 24th and falling, probably isn’t going to get much better the last five weeks. The jerseys of opposing quarterbacks are getting cleaner, not dirtier, as the season wears on.

Allen set a career high by going sackless for an eighth consecutive game, something he hasn’t done since putting Jalen Hurts down in the third quarter against the Philadelphia Eagles in Week 4.

As for No. 1 overall draft pick Travon Walker, he continues struggling to get to the quarterback, missing a 1-on-1 chance against Goff in the second quarter before Chad Muma finally put him down.

No defensive fix in sight

Nothing right now about the Jaguars’ defense, which has to go to Nashville on Sunday and try to slow down Tennessee Titans’ running back Derrick Henry, indicates a turnaround is imminent.

It’s a defense searching for answers that, from a personnel standpoint, aren’t readily available. Without a viable pass rush, the secondary will continue to get exposed.

Pederson’s interview with 1010XL on-field reporter Bucky Brooks afterward was pretty telling when he said: “Somehow, we’ve got to figure this thing out. There’s a level of intensity each week. The Lions were fighting for the same things we were fighting for. It appeared they wanted it a touch more than we did.”

That reality slap cannot be minimized or ignored by the players.

A head coach questioning his team’s intensity, in a game where the Jaguars were fighting for whatever playoff life they had left, sends an unmistakable message about how furious Pederson should be about this meltdown.

Several players acknowledged the Jaguars, for whatever reason, lacked their usual game-day vehemence. It reflected all over the box score.

“I’m not going to say the energy wasn’t there or it was absent, but it was definitely different,” said safety Rayshawn Jenkins. “We’re at our best when we’re all feeding off each other’s energy. Some guys actually need that to play well. We got to do a better job of bringing that and channeling that in a game.”

Truthfully, with the Jaguars being such a sub-par road team and three games left away from TIAA Bank Field, they’re staring at playoff elimination next week.

The Jaguars had a chance to make the AFC South interesting by going up to Detroit and winning. There’s absolutely no defense for what they put on tape.

Gfrenette@jacksonville.com: (904) 359-4540  

Gene Frenette Sports columnist at Florida Times-Union, follow him on Twitter @genefrenette

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Without defense showing up, Jaguars fall to Lions, kill playoff hopes